1. Field of the Invention
The invention(s) relates (relate) generally to capture and/or processing of vocal performances and, in particular, to techniques suitable for addressing latency variability in audio subsystems (hardware and/or software) of deployment platforms for karaoke and other vocal capture type applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
The installed base of mobile phones and other portable computing devices grows in sheer number and computational power each day. Hyper-ubiquitous and deeply entrenched in the lifestyles of people around the world, they transcend nearly every cultural and economic barrier. Computationally, the mobile phones of today offer speed and storage capabilities comparable to desktop computers from less than ten years ago, rendering them surprisingly suitable for real-time sound synthesis and other musical applications. Partly as a result, some modern mobile phones, such as the iPhone® handheld digital device, available from Apple Inc., as well as competitive devices that run the Android™ operating system, all tend to support audio and video playback quite capably, albeit with increasingly diverse and varied runtime characteristics.
As digital acoustic researchers seek to transition their innovations to commercial applications deployable to modern handheld devices such as the iPhone® handheld and other iOS® and Android™ platforms operable within the real-world constraints imposed by processor, memory and other limited computational resources thereof and/or within communications bandwidth and transmission latency constraints typical of wireless networks, significant practical challenges present. The success of vocal capture type applications, such as the I Am T-Pain, Glee Karaoke and Sing! Karaoke applications popularized by Smule Inc., is a testament to the sophistication digital acoustic processing achievable on modern handheld device platforms. iPhone is a trademark of Apple, Inc., iOS is a trademark of Cisco Technology, Inc. used by Apple under license and Android is a trademark of Google Inc.
One set of practical challenges that exists results from the sheer variety of handheld device platforms (and versions thereof) that now (or will) exist as possible deployment platforms for karaoke and other vocal capture type applications, particularly within the Android device ecosystem. Variations in underlying hardware and software platforms can create timing, latency and/or synchronization problems for karaoke and other vocal capture type application deployments. Improved techniques are desired.